SUB-CEN­TRE WINS AWARD

THE de­sire and abil­ity to go above and be­yond the call of duty for its com­mu­nity is one of the rea­sons the team at the Walpole-Nor­nalup St John Am­bu­lance sub-cen­tre won an award at a State level last month.

The team won the St John Am­bu­lance WA Sub-Cen­tre of the Year award for 2017 at an awards night in Perth late last month.

One of the rea­sons the sub­cen­tre won, ac­cord­ing to team mem­bers, was the highly suc­cess­ful com­mu­nity trans­port ve­hi­cle op­er­at­ing out of the cen­tre.

In ad­di­tion to the sub-cen­tre’s two am­bu­lances, the team also has a ve­hi­cle they fundraised for to pro­vide lost-cost trans­port for peo­ple who have med­i­cal ap­point­ments in Den­mark and Al­bany.

“A lot of our el­derly had been quite sick and they were hav­ing to drive to their ap­point­ments or can­celling them,” WalpoleNor­nalup St John Am­bu­lance mem­ber Kaye Hall said.

“Our el­derly have put a lot of money into the sub-cen­tre in the last 60 years so we thought we’d give back.”

Team mem­ber Den­nis Hall said it was be­lieved the Walpole-Nor­nalup sub-cen­tre was the first re­gional cen­tre in the State to have a com­mu­nity trans­port ve­hi­cle.

“I think they’re try­ing to roll it out in other re­gional sub-cen­tres now,” he said.

Mrs Hall said it had been a sur­prise to be nom­i­nated for the award and the team was hon­oured to have re­ceived it for what they con­sid­ered as “giv­ing back to the com­mu­nity”.